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Q: Charging system failure.

asked by on December 21, 2016

My car started poping check charge sys got it checked it was my alternator . replaced the alternator and it still did it , had the battery checked, it was a bad battery , got a brand new battery from parts store and still did it . Took it to oreillys had them hook up the machine that test alternator and stuff and they said it was my alternator so I took it off and took it in there to warranty it they hooked on their machine and it passed they told me to put it back in and bring it back up so they could test it on the car still failed on the car said the voltage regulator was bad . Took alternator off again and got a new one and it still says check charge sys, took it back up there and they said it was a bad battery when I just got it 3 days before that . warranty out the battery got a new one and it still says check charge sys and I'll start to loose power slowly till it compltele loses it . any help ?? Suggestions?? What can I do or check??

My car has 174000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.

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Hello There! This is a sign of a bad voltage regulator as indicated by the test they ran with everything still installed on the vehicle. The voltage regulator is a unit that regulates the charging of the battery by the alternator and is a separate component from the alternator. When the voltage regulator is not working properly, this may result in the alternator allowing too much power to be delivered to the battery resulting in damaging wires and prematurely sometimes destroying the battery. In other cases it may result in the alternator not supplying enough power to the battery, resulting in undercharging the battery or not charging it at all. I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your location to diagnose your vehicle’s charging system.

Chevrolet
2006
Charging System
L4-2.4L
HHR
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